To answer what my favorites are so far, they are genmai cha (Ilya's recommendation - hate to admit), white blueberry & jasmine #12. I have a sweet tooth, so I do like a fruity, flowery cup. I still fear the backlash of bringing milk and sugar to work for the black teas, but I've been told I won't be teased - much.

Yunnan Gold is the bomb, as is the black vanilla. Also, pouchong, kukicha, and silver needle are great oolong, green, and white teas (respectively). I don't really do herbals or rooibos so I have no recommendations for those.

Amanda wrote:I have a sweet tooth, so I do like a fruity, flowery cup. I still fear the backlash of bringing milk and sugar to work for the black teas, but I've been told I won't be teased - much.

-Amanda

Ps. any favorites to recommend to the newbie?

Hi Amanda,

For black teas I'd recommend giving Golden Monkey a try as it has a nice smooth flavor which is an "easier" black tea to drink without sugar. If you like sweet fruity teas I'd also recommend Lychee black (something that adagio does not carry - see if you can change that) as it has a nice sweet fruity taste to it. For green and white teas I'd recommend having someone with experience show you how to brew them as they are easy to mess up and end up a bitter mess up.

And finally and probably most importantly don't be intimidated by the anti-sugar lobby. While I realize that for formal tea tasting when you are comparing different teas to each other you should be tasting them without anything added, beyond that tea should be about drinking it how you like it. I've been drinking tea for close to 8 years and I've only recently started making a gradual move towards losing the sugar in it (still not there yet in respect to all black teas that I drink), and even with higher quality tea like adagio has its not easy at first and takes some getting used to. Yet at the same time while I want to reach the sugarless tea point for myself I realize that drinking tea without sugar is not for everyone and that there are a lot worse things than tea with sugar that they could be drinking like soda and toilet water.

klemptor wrote:Yunnan Gold is the bomb, as is the black vanilla. Also, pouchong, kukicha, and silver needle are great oolong, green, and white teas (respectively). I don't really do herbals or rooibos so I have no recommendations for those.

Welcome to the board, Amanda! Hope you have fun here . If you need advice, just ask someone. Everyone here seems pretty nice.

I haven't yet had the chance to order anything from Adagio, really, but at the moment (this changes almost constantly) the teas I seem to be leaning on are white peony (bai mu dan) and Celestial Seasoning's peach white tea.

Wow, I need to keep up. Being busy is not good for my teachat addiction. Anyway, I highly recommend the kukicha baton. Yummy. But then, I'm a kukicha fan. Also, I second the vanilla black recommendation!